The Secret Terms of Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Deal
The Trump administration committed the U.S. to taking a large stake in a Venezuelan company, some of whose owners and investors are shielded from public view. The exact details of the agreement over o...
Polish parliament votes to liberalize abortion access
Two bills to liberalize abortion laws, backed by pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk's governing coalition, were voted through on October 20, though conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki is expected to veto them.
US has resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine about Russian strikes, says Zelenskyy
Advance warnings of missile attacks were seemingly suspended last week by the White House, but Ukraine’s president says: ‘Now it works’ The US has resumed sharing intelligence with Kyiv about Russian missile strikes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday after a meeting with the US envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was again receiving advance warnings of ballistic missile attacks, which were seemingly suspended last week by the White House. “Now it works. It’s great,” he said, saying the US move would save lives. Continue reading...
APOD: 2026 October 21 - New Ghosts Revealed in Cassiopeia - NASA Science
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 21 – New… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Original Annotated New Ghosts Revealed in Cassiopeia Explanation: Jinkies, look at all those ghosts! It took 100 hours of observation and a special oxygen filter for today’s image to capture three faint nebulas hidden in the Cassiopeia constellation. IC 59 and IC 63, the original Ghosts of Cassiopeia, haunt the region near multi-star system γ Cassiopeia. Energetic light from γ Cassiopeia causes the hydrogen gas in IC 59 and 63 to glow red. Their dust reflects and scatters some blue-ish white starlight. Newly discovered Objects 1, 2, and 3 appear as blue phantoms, revealing the presence of ionized oxygen. But ionized by what? Like at the bow of a speeding boat, γ Cassiopeia may be piling up material as the system moves through interstellar gas and dust. It follows that Object 3 may be the compressed and heated oxygen of that bow shock. Object 1 cou
NASA’s CASALS Instrument Bridges Gaps in 3D Maps of Earth’s Surface
Explore This Section Overview Technology Programs Technology Highlights Workshops and Events Publications From orbit, today’s space-based laser instruments measure Earth’s forests and terrain one narrow line at a time. Between those lines are enormous gaps that include millions of acres of land scientists never directly measure. NASA’s CASALS instrument will blend machine learning with an ultra-compact lidar instrument to adaptively ‘sweep’ large swaths of Earth’s surface. This new capability for space-based remote sensors allows CASALS to create truly three-dimensional (3D) topographical renderings. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Video from a CASALS flight over the Great Cypress Swamp in Delaware on Nov. 12, 2024, showing tree canopy tops in green, the ground in purple, and near-ground vegetation in blue. Credit: NASA A team of researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to eliminate blind spots between lines of lidar data on the Earth’s surface. Built with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), the Concurrent Artificially-intell
Bots behaving badly, the latest on AI regulation and investigating Kevin’s sloppelganger: Machine Gods
On the first episode of Machine Gods, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton ask: How worried should we be about rogue AI agents? After OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach, we discuss the first sighting of a rogue AI agent fleet linked to a Chinese AI company, Anthropic’s Claude sending a bogus homicide tip to Philadelphia police, and a new Anthropic report warning AI agents may be months away from self-replicating on smart TVs and other home devices.Then, who’s going to rein this in? We size up President Trump’s new Super Intelligence Force, the FTC subpoenas and EU AI Act investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic, and ask whether regulators are anywhere close to getting this right.And finally, Kevin investigates his sloppelganger. Someone made an AI-generated rip-off of his new book, The AGI Chronicles, and sold it on Amazon. Now he’s coming for them.For a transcript of this episode, check out can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at hey@machinegods.fm
Trump’s approval rating drops to 36% two weeks before midterms, poll finds
Voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of economy and cost of living, says poll in new low recorded by NY Times/Siena Donald Trump’s approval rating sank to 36% just two weeks before the midterm elections, the lowest recorded in a poll by the New York Times/Siena College, with most respondents expressing frustration over his handling of the US economy, cost of living and Iran war. In an October survey of approximately 3,494 likely voters, 59% said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of his job, and 52% said they planned to vote for the Democratic candidate in the upcoming election. Continue reading...
Besieged Yemeni city on verge of ‘unmanageable’ crisis, aid workers warn
Water, gas and fresh food running out in Taiz as fighting intensifies and Houthi advance cuts off most supply routes The humanitarian crisis in the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz is becoming unmanageable as the city runs out of water, gas and fresh food, Oxfam aid workers in the country have warned. Iran-allied Houthi forces have largely encircled the city of more than 900,000 people, cutting it off from most supply routes. This week, heavy fighting has raged around the city’s old airport, causing extensive damage in a densely populated residential area. Continue reading...
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